838 OROBANCHE. [CLASS XIV. order ll. 



Habitat. — On the roots of Centaurea, Scabiosa, &c. ; not common. 

 Perennial ; flowering in July and August. 



This is distinguished from O, major by its purplish brown stem, its 

 numerous lax flowered spike, the elongated sepals, the narrower more 

 tuberous corolla, the limb more crenated, the stamens with the downy 

 base and smaller anthers, the style quite smooth, and the stigmas 

 purplish. 



4. O. mi'nor, Smith. (Fig. 969.) Lesser Broom-rape. Stem simple, 

 striated; sepals many ribbed, ovate, with a slender awl-shaped point, 

 entire or bifid, as long as the tube of the corolla, which is tubular, 

 curved, the limb waved, and obtusely toothed, the lower lip of roundish 

 unequal notched lobes; stamens inserted below the middle of the 

 tube ; the filaments fringed at the base ; style smooth ; stigma two 

 lobed, purplish. 



' English Botany, t. 422. — English Flora, vol. iii. p. 148. — Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 241. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 194. 



Root fibrous. Stem erect, sibout a foot high, slender, somewhat 

 angularly striated, of a yellowish purple hue, becoming brown, downy, 

 as is the whole plant, with soft glandular hairs, and bearing a few 

 distant lanceolate scales, more numerous towards the fleshy somewhat 

 swollen base. Injlorescence a lax terminal spike of a few rarely 

 crowded flowers. Bracteas lanceolate, taper pointed, dark brown, 

 woolly externally. Calyx of two sepals, rarely united at the base, 

 ovate, with an awl-shaped point, as long as the tube of the corolla, 

 numerously ribbed, entire, or cleft into two mostly unequal segments, 

 pale, and clothed with glandular pubescence. Corolla with a nearly 

 cylindrical tube, curved towards the top, striated with dark veins, and 

 slightly hairy, the upper lip somewhat concave, unequally and ob- 

 tusely toothed, sometimes notched, the lower of three unequal roundish 

 irregularly and obtusely toothed lobes, veiny. Stamens with awl- 

 shaped filaments inserted below the middle of the tube, and somewhat 

 fringed at the base with short pubescence. Anthers ovate, purplish, of 

 two pointed cells. Style smooth, the stigmas of two lobes, purplish. 

 Capsules oblong. Seeds very numerous, very small, dark shining 

 brown, almost black, attached to the lateral placentas. 



Habitat.— Clover fields in Norfolk, Kent, and Surrey; frequent in 

 Ireland, " near the roots of ivy." 



Perennial ; flowering in July and August. 



6. O. ru'bra, Smith. (Fig. 970.) Red Broom-rape. Stem simple, 

 angular; sepals many ribbed, lanceolate, awl-shaped, entire or bifid, 

 as long as the tube of the corolla, which is tubular, curved, and inflated 

 upwards, downy, with glandular pubescence, the limb spreading, the 

 margin unequally toothed and crisped, the upper lip incurved, two 

 lobed, the lower three lobed, the middle one the largest, spreading ; 

 stamens inserted near the base of the corolla, somewhat downy, as well 

 as the style ; stigmas reddish purple. 



